Zendaya: Language and Representations blog tasks

 Zendaya: Language and Representations blog tasks

Work through the following tasks to complete the first half of your blog work on Zendaya.

Introduction and background reading 

Read this Vox article on what makes Zendaya a great celebrity. Answer the following questions:

1) What was the 2015 Oscar controversy involving Zendaya? 

Zendaya went to the red carpet wearing a white silk gown, with her hair in dreadlocks and on E’s Fashion Police, Giuliana Rancic stated that, “That hair is swallowing her. I feel like she smells like patchouli oil.” An offscreen voice added, “Or weed.” This caused commenters saying that the Fashion Police segment was racist due what Giuliana Rancic said.

2) How did Zendaya control the narrative of that controversy?

She actively took control by making a post saying  “There is already harsh criticism of African American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who choose to judge others based on the curl of their hair. My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough. To me locs are a symbol of beauty and strength, almost like a lion’s mane.”

3) What examples are provided of Zendaya using her celebrity to raise issues of race and social justice?

She talks about her struggles to finagle her way into the audition room for parts that default to white actresses. “I always tell my theatrical manager, ‘Anytime it says they’re looking for white girls, send me out. Let me get in the room. Maybe they’ll change their minds,’”

4) Zendaya insisted on a black family in Disney’s KC Undercover show. How can we link this to the ideas of Paul Gilroy? 

Gilroy argues that immigrants challenge national ideals and create cultural clashes. Zendaya supports this idea by challenging traditional white family stereotyped sitcoms.

5) Who is Zendaya’s stylist and how did Zendaya use fashion and appearance to develop her celebrity persona? 

Since she was 14, she has been dressed through stylist Law Roach seeing that and his playful, performative aesthetic and dedication to storytelling in reality works in Zendaya’s outfits. She uses her outfits to tell the audience a tale and through her response to Rancic proved that she is willing to impeach the ones alternatives and help them.

6) How has Zendaya influenced the representation of characters she has played? 

Her casting in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" as MJ, a character traditionally portrayed as white, was seen as a step towards greater racial diversity in superhero films.

7) How did LL Cool J describe Zendaya? 

“She’s cool. You can manufacture fame. You can manufacture publicity. You can manufacture songs. You can’t manufacture cool.”

8) Do you agree with his assessment? Is Zendaya authentically cool or just another manufactured celebrity? 

Zendaya could be called authentically cool as she stands out more prominently in terms of what she tries to promote and fight for, but as most celebrities, there are some structured elements within what she does and posts

Zendaya textual analysis

Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Zendaya's social media. 

Social media analysis

1) Visit Zendaya's Twitter feed. Analyse her use of tweets - are they promoting her film/TV work, linked to fashion or sponsorship work or more socially or politically oriented? 

Some posts are a mere attempt to engage with her audience to show some sort of realism and other posts are more career focused in terms of her being at events that mainly will help promote the shows she is acting in or producing.

2) Look at Zendaya's Instagram account. She has said this is the one account that is always 100% created by her - can you find any evidence of that in the way posts or images are constructed? 

"I’m very, very particular about my Instagram so nobody has access to it other than me...I think it’s important, to a degree, to be honest with that stuff." implies that her other accounts could be managed by social media managers to a degree, adding to that sense of detachment from the fans and her.

3) Watch Zendaya's 73 questions Vogue interview. How is this constructed to create a particular representation of Zendaya? 

Her answer is a combination of recurring connections and roles she played before recently and how she has improved over the years. One question was what she hoped the career would look like over the years which ended up linking to her more proactive approach being a true woman of color, wanting to advocate for similar representations.

4) Research Zendaya across any other social media accounts - e.g. Facebook. Do you notice any differences in how she represents herself on different platforms? Comment on text, images or tone/content.  

Zendaya posts her social life and how she lives and acts but other instances of what she posts are usually her brands she endorses.

Representations

Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on Zendaya, social media, feminism and celebrity (MM81 - page 12). Answer the following questions:

1) What the concerns around social media discussed at the start of the article?

"people seem to be taking these criticisms more seriously and concerns that social media can negatively affect one’s mental health and cause anxiety are more widespread and being taken more seriously."

2) What example is provided of Zendaya’s authenticity – or possible lack of authenticity? 

"People seem to be taking these criticisms more seriously and concerns that social media can negatively affect one’s mental health and cause anxiety are more widespread and being taken more seriously."

3) What is the one social media app that Zendaya manages entirely herself?

"I’m very, very particular about my Instagram so nobody has access to it other than me...I think it’s important, to a degree, to be honest with that stuff."

4) What are the issues highlighted by Billie Eilish regarding self-representation and feminism? 

"Eilish here is highlighting the lack of nuance in understanding self-representation and feminism which accompanies the mainstream online. These are over-simplified ideas and restrict one from accurately and earnestly portraying oneself online and contribute to the mental health epidemic caused partly by social media platforms."

5) How authentic do YOU feel Zendaya’s media representation is? Is it the real Zendaya or a media construction designed to look authentic? 

The representations we see online are fairly authentic, but due this authenticism, they can also appear unrealistic. we as users may appreciate Zendaya’s desire to empower her followers, but we cannot ignore the fact her messages could be damaging, especially to vulnerable users who are inappropriately comparing their own appearance and achievements to the star’s lifestyle as users may mistake her authenticity for easy attainability.